Croydon, Sutton and Bromley stations among those to operate on reduced opening hours in future under the latest police budget cuts
Facing closure: Wimbledon will be closed under the latest Met budget cuts
Wimbledon and Mitcham are among 10 London police stations facing permanent closure under the latest version of cost-cutting measures being introduced by the Metropolitan Police towards saving £260million from its budget.
The cuts represent a broken manifesto promise from London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who last year pledged to have a police station desk open 24/7 in every one of London’s 32 boroughs. That commitment was also part of the police’s own A New Met for London strategy, which was published in July 2023.
Now, under the Met’s revised proposals released last night, London will have just three open-all-hours stations, with the Met operating Lewisham and at Charing Cross – the same police station where 10 of its officers are under investigation by the police watchdog.
Bishopsgate, which is run by the City of London Police, also has a front counter operating 24 hours a day.
Croydon is among 25 stations where the front desk is currently open all day and every day but which will move to “extended hours” – meaning 10am to 10pm on weekdays and 9am to 7pm at weekends. Others making the same change include Sutton, Bromley, Brixton, Walworth, Kingston, Bexleyheath, Plumstead and Lavender Hill in Battersea.
Overall, the number of front counters where the public can speak to officers will reduce from 37 to 27. The Met had initially planned to permanently cut the number of publicly accessible front counters to 19.
In 2013, London had nearly 140 front counters, but the then Mayor, Boris Johnson, closed 65 of them. In 2017, under Mayor Khan, a further 38 were closed.
The latest cuts will save the Met £7million, and will involve laying off about 1,700 officers and back-office staff.
Twist or stick?: overseeing the cuts is the Met’s Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist
The Met’s rationale is that only 5% of crime is reported to front counters – about 50,000 of the 1million crimes reported in London annually.
In August, Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist told the London Assembly, “This essentially comes down to us having to choose between keeping officers on London’s streets, where they can respond to the public, or retaining the current position on all front counters, which may be a symbolic point of access but are largely underutilised, especially overnight.”
The Met says that it has revised its proposals “after listening to feedback from Londoners”. Charing Cross and Lewisham, it says, are its “busiest sites”.
By that logic, the Met must consider Merton a low-crime area, as it is closing both of that borough’s remaining, fully functioning stations.
“The new model balances the savings with the desire for local access with the need to focus stretched resources on operational policing,” the Met said last night.
“The location of front counters will now be better aligned with the location of custody suites and demand.”
Last night, AC Twist said: “The Met is having to shrink to live within its means and as the public would expect, we are targeting our resources on a narrower set of their priorities to make London safer.
“Londoners tell us they want more visible and responsive policing on the capital’s streets and that is exactly what we are going to deliver.
Set for closure: Mitcham Police Station is one of 10 to be closed across London
“But we have also listened to their views during an extensive engagement process and, while our funding gap means we must reduce provision, we will keep more front counters open across London.”
The Met says that its changes will free up almost 3,000 hours of police officer time per month, “ensuring officers and staff are in the roles where they are best placed to drive down crime”.
The Met said: “Londoners will continue to be able to book appointments to see an officer and report a crime, access video appointments, phone 999 and 101, report online and contact their local ward officers.”
Phones will be installed outside closed front counters “to minimise the impact”, they said.
The Met has pointed to 300 PCSOs and 300 officers invested last year and a further 400 officers being posted into “priority neighbourhood posts to ensure greater visibility of officers in our communities”.
By the end of November, the dedicated Royal Parks police unit will have closed, while reducing its dogs unit, mounted branch and historic crime team.
Officers have been “moved out of roles that don’t meet core policing priorities”, the Met says, such as schools officers, liaison officers in courts and community liaison officers, as it says it is prioritising crimes such as robbery and shoplifting.
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